The Soul of a Business: Managing For Profit And The Common Good [Paperback]

Tom Chappell (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 1996

Both a personal odyssey and a practical blueprint for new management strategies, The Soul Of A Business shows how to re-shape a business to manage for the common good: the good of the company, the good of the employees, and the ultimate good of the community that company serves.  Tom Chappell, eco-entrepreneur and co-founder of Tom's of Maine (the leading producer of environmentally-friendly personal care products in America) used his personal quest for meaning as a springboard for a new management style that emphasizes spiritual values as the basis for real commercial success. Chappell and his company have proven that working people at every level can realize personal values and meaning in their jobs without compromising excellence, and competitiveness.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The founder of Tom's of Maine offers a thoughtful look at business ethics.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

In 1974 Chappell and wife Kate founded Tom's of Maine, a company that makes products using only natural ingredients. By 1981 this company, started with a $5000 loan, was registering $1.5 million in sales. Despite this success, Chappell was unhappy; he felt disconnected from the company. He enrolled in divinity school, where he decided to re-create his company in a way that would encourage respect for the individual, the community, and the environment. This is the story of that transformation. Many of the ideas presented here, like starting a newsletter or creating small work groups, have been prevalent in management literature for some time, and few companies have the conditions needed to make their success possible. While Tom's of Maine consumers might enjoy reading this account, and others might find it inspirational, only the CEO of a small company could use it to follow in Chappell's footsteps.
- Joshua Cohen, Mid-Hudson Lib. System, Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Bantam; Reprint edition (May 1, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 055337415X
• ISBN-13: 978-0553374155
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #906,380 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Don't let a business take itself over, April 25, 2006

By 

Jeff Lippincott "JLIPPIN" (Princeton, NJ USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Soul of a Business: Managing For Profit And The Common Good (Paperback)

This was a wonderful book to read. After reading it I felt as though I probably know its author pretty good. Not as a friend or someone I'd necessarily like to be friends with, but he seems to be very open about his past, his present, and his beliefs. I am sure that what he discloses in this book will help any wanta-be entrepreneur or small to medium sized business owner rethink whether he or she is leading his or her company in the right direction. I highly recommend that entrepreneurs give this book a read.

Some of the issues addressed are as follows:

1. Will the mission of the company allow the company's leader to enjoy a reasonably good state of mind or conscience?

2. What does a CEO have to do at work to feel fulfilled?

3. Is the CEO of the company a happy and fulfilled person?

4. Are people who work at the company happy at work?

5. Does the company interface well with the community in which it operates?

6. Does the community appreciate the company?

7. Do people trust one another who work for the company?

8. Does much discrimination exist at the company?

9. Is the company all about profits, or not?

10. Is competition good?

11. Is winning always good?

12. Is there more to life than making a buck?

The above issues are just the first 12 that came to mind while I was writing this review. There were many more, but I'm not going to list them all here. The above issues are representative of the content of the book. Maybe the book provides answers, and maybe it doesn't. But the book is great because it reminds business people who are caught up in the rat race of making a living that there is more to business than just making a buck. What comes to mind is: joy, happiness, success, family, friends, and a legacy. Is the business damaging the world, or helping to make it a better place?

I would have enjoyed the book more if the author had not started off explaining what the book "was not." And I would have had a more positive image of the book if the author had not mentioned that he got a lot of his theory from the Harvard Divinity School. There was no need to bring the Gospels into the "story." There is no question that things that can be learned from studying the Gospels are wonderful, but the same things can be learned from other sources. So why throw a religious slant on the issues? I think the book would have been more forceful if religion had be left out entirely.

I enjoyed hearing about the author's wife, but I would have enjoyed hearing more about her thoughts on helping to run the company she and her husband co-founded. I felt a little cheated not hearing a woman's perspective on some of the issues. After all, the author points out that women should be included in management decisions, and that his wife's in fact were.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Provides foundation to business ethics, November 12, 2000

By 

Carter Merkle (Norman, OK United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Soul of a Business: Managing For Profit And The Common Good (Paperback)

The Soul of a Business, though lesser known than many of the myriad of business advice books, does a better job than any other in giving a foundation from which to work.

The business guru often spends an entire book telling us how to treat others. Chappell tells us what basic principles he found that led him to this position of responsible commerce.

Shelves are full of books offering cliches and platitudes on why why ethical behavior leads to a better company and eventually more profits. However, Chappell's book goes back to the root question - why should we as individuals or companies seek one kind of relationship over another? In other words, what should guide us in how we treat each other?

For a book that delivers far beyond simple diagrams and behavior modification tricks, a book that provides the philosophical foundations of Buber and Edwards to guide us in how we should interact with our employees, customers and community read Chappell's book. I ended up owning both paperback and audio tape.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A wake up call for traditional, one-dimensional managers., December 22, 1998

By 

Kevin A. Trapani (Chapel Hill, NC USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Soul of a Business: Managing For Profit And The Common Good (Paperback)

For those of us who have had difficulty reconciling our personal desires to make a difference with our career demands to turn a profit, this book connects. It's a study in managing value complexity and speaks well to the enormous rewards of striving for a goal much higher than improving ROE. Not all of us can take the same route as does Tom Chappell, but, if we're to be truly fulfilled by our business lives, we must find our own way to his destination.